It was time to slay the mighty parsley-beasts. Â I felt a little regretful about this, as they had done me proud by growing all green and bountiful, despite my doing very little to help them. Â But, many leaves had been picked for many dishes, and …
This idea came to me by accident, really.  I’m always a fan of shortbread, so any excuse for that.  But the orange part happened when a lonely orange, languishing in the fruit bowl, happened to cross my field of vision whilst I was enjoying a Sunday morning …
We have recently started smoking. Â No, not the nicotine kind (don’t worry Mum!), the charcoal kind. Â And my is it fun.
Our little smoker cost us the princely sum of $50, half price on the GrabOne daily deals website. Â I think it looks a bit like a cute little alien space pod that landed on earth:
We’ve had adventures with pulled pork (delicious) and smoked beef (still perfecting that one) but my favourite so far has been a smoked leg of lamb, using Yotam Ottolenghi’s lamb shawarma recipe.
I know I prod and poke around with some recipes, but there is really nothing you would want to change about this one: it is totally amazing and has ruined me for all other lamb dishes.  The preparation may feel a bit like a labour of love – plenty of fancy and delicious ingredients like cinnamon sticks and star anise and fresh coriander that need to be ground, sliced, crushed and grated.  But it is utterly, totally worth it.
The recipe asks that you dry-roast the peppercorns, cloves, cardamom pods, fenugreek seeds, fennel seeds, cumin seeds, star anise and cinnamon stick until the seeds pop, and then add nutmeg and paprika. Â This will make your kitchen smell absolutely lovely. Â These ingredients then have to be ground to a powder – we used an old, slightly decrepit coffee grinder with a dodgy cable, borrowed from my parents. Â No electric shocks resulted, you will be glad to hear.
All of that delightful fresh coriander (40 grams), along with sea salt, lemon juice, garlic, peanut oil, sumac and fresh ginger are mixed with the ground spices to make a paste. Â I loved this bit because the lovely fresh smells hit you in a big delicious wave.
One then massages  the paste into the lamb joint.  Which, I won’t lie, does feel a bit odd.
The lamb gets wrapped in its own little foil tent.
Now we divert from Mr Ottolenghi’s method, as we placed ours in our smoker, instead of a 170 degrees celsius oven. Â A smoker, I have learned, is a delicate thing when it comes to heating and maintaining a specific heat. Â I must confess I leave the more technical aspects of this part to the spouse, who has a far greater aptitude for tools, gadgets and generally all things that go ‘beep’ than I do. Â But for those of you wishing for these details, Â we use charcoal in our smoker, and to cook this joint, we tried to keep the temperature around 200 degrees farenheit / 93 degrees celsius, and took our lamb out when it reached an internal temperature of around 65 degrees celsius.
I’ve already confessed that Mr Ottolenghi has ruined me for all over lamb recipes with this amazing concoction. Â A purist may be horrified, but I found smoking the lamb joint complemented the flavours beautifully and boy does it make your garden smell incredible while it’s cooking. Â Happy experimenting ’til next time.
Lucky me, to receive this lovely baking book for my birthday from my similarly kitchen-obsessed little sister.  Alice Arndell’s Alice in Bakingland is a treat for the eyes as much as anything, full of pictures of dainty plates, matching teacup-and-saucer sets, all showing off delightful …
It simply wouldn’t be a summer holiday without a little cold beer, would it? And luckily the remote, beautiful Coromandel Peninsula, the current holiday location, was happy to oblige us with the the Hot Water Brewery. You find this little delight on the Tairua-Whitianga Road, …
Hello everyone, this shan’t be my usual post with recipe, or even a very long one – the Mister and I are on holiday, currently in the beautiful Bay of Plenty, NZ, at the dazzling Papamoa Beach. But I thought I might share a few of the tasty nibbles we have been enjoying with you.
Mt Maunganui has a market every Sunday morning and of course this opportunity to fill my face with stuff from a new destination could not be resisted.
The avocado depicted comes from a bag of four avocados that cost me only $3, sold to me by a nice old man who grows them in his garden. It is one of those avocados that fills me with joy when opened because it is perfect – all greeny-golden and buttery without a single flaw.
It tastes marvellous slathered on a slice of loaf from a lovely Spanish girl with a bakery stall. This loaf is the ‘Mt Maunganui Gold’ and billed as ‘crusty, chewy and yielding.’ Who could resist? And I am happy to report it does not disappoint.
We spent a good long while happily sampling an impressive range of relishes and sauces at The Chilli Company stall. Eventually we settled on a bottle of Sweet Orange Chilli Sauce, which has just the right balance of sweet and bitterness with a good strong bit of chilli which lingers. Not unlike a delicious savoury marmalade, I suppose.
This sauce is lovely with the venison sausages depicted, from the Basecamp stall – very hearty and filling.
Anyway dear friends, I am signing off for now – happy eating to all!
Regular readers of this blog may have noticed that I am fortunate to have parentals who kindly bring me ingredients from their travels, with which I can then experiment. Â And so today, I’m going to tell you all about my fun with a bottle of …
I have come into possession of two fruity items this week – a lovely big batch of stewed apples courtesy of my sister, and a tin of strawberries. Yes, tinned strawberries, what a strange thing indeed. Â I found them in the supermarket on special for …
I promised you that there would be more almonds to follow as part of my Edmonds Cookbook challenge, and I did not lie. Â We now find ourselves at devilled almonds.
When you put your mind to it, there is a considerable number of food items prefaced by ‘devilled.’ Â Devilled eggs and devilled sausages, to name but two. Â I also came across a recipe for devilled kidneys in my travels through the internet, which sound slightly less appetising.
Letting my imagination get the better of me, I surmised that the ‘devilled’ part of devilled almonds may refer to naughty, n’er do well-type almonds as depicted:
The Oxford dictionary informs me, however, that ‘devilled’ means ‘cooked with hot seasoning.’   These little almonds are no exception, with a good sprinkling of chilli powder.  The essential ingredients for Edmonds‘ Devilled Almonds are:
One begins by heating the oil in a frypan. Â The recipe does not specify which type of oil one should use – I used plain old vegetable oil and it worked fine.
Then, add the blanched almonds. Â You may recall I have had adventures with blanched almonds not so long ago – as discussed then, blanched almonds are naked, skinless almonds; their clothes removed through a boiling water process.
Stir these almonds until they turn golden. Â They smell delicious during this process.
Remove the almonds and drain them on absorbent paper. Â Combine the chilli and salt and toss the almonds in this mixture to coat them, adding more chilli if you so desire (I did). Â Leave them to dry before use.
These little guys are scrumptious! Â Really, how can you ever go wrong with fried nuts? Â Not often, in my savoury-toothed world. Â I think there is plenty of potential for some delicious variation with this recipe. Â It would be delicious with some freshly ground pepper added, or some cumin and ground coriander. Â I’m even wondering about the possibility of a little wasabi powder. Â Varying the oil used could also yield bountiful tastiness.
They would make a lovely little gift for the nut-lover in your life as they are quite pretty as well as delicious and look cute all done up in a jar.
Enjoy! Â Especially with a cold beverage before dinner.
Who doesn’t love a bit of maple syrup?  The indigenous people of the Americas were the first to harvest maple sap.  One legend credits the humble squirrel with its discovery, telling of a young boy who watched a red squirrel nip at the bark of a maple …